Charging and discharging device



Sept. 9 1924. 1,507,843

F. D. MARSHALL cnmeme AND mscmaeme mavxcu Filed June 1, i922 Shuts- Shut 1 Sept. 9, 1924.

I F. D. MARSHALL CHARGINQ AND DISCHARGING DEVICE Filed June l 1922 2 Shuts-Shut 2 Patented Sept. 9, 1924.

UNITED STATES FREDERICK DEAGON MARSHALL, OF WESTMINSTER, LONDON, ENGLAND.

CHARGING AND DISCHARGING DEVICE.

Application filed June 1, 1922 Serial No. 565,271.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK DEACON MARSHALL, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at 19 Queen Annes Chambers, WVest-minster, in the county of London, England, have invented a new and useful Charging and Discharging Device, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to dischargin or charging devices for rotary dryers, kilns, furnaces, retorts, and the like (hereinafter termed retorts), the object of 'the present invention being to render either the discharging and charging operations, or both, entirely automatic and independent of hand labour.

According to the present invention one or more valves are provided which'are carried by the retort, together with means, independent of the retort chamber and suitably disposed relatively to the valve or valves for intermittently engaging with and actuating the same, the said valves being so constructed and arranged that they continue to seal the retort chamber during the charging or discharging operations. Each rotary valve maybe of the type which comprises a number of radial arms carried by a spindle which is rotatably mounted within a cylinder or casing attached to or forming part of the retort chamber, the said valve casing being providedwith inlet and outlet openings for the fuel. The valve spindle may project through'a stulfing box in the valve casing and, to render the actuation of the valve automatic, a pinion may be keyed upon the spindle which is adapted during the rotation of the retort, to mesh periodically with a fixed sector-like rack mounted on a suitable base or bed plate on the ground and so disposed relatively to the retort that the pinion or pinions successively engage the rack and are intermittently rotated at the proper moment to ensure the discharging operations being effected in the most advantageous manner. Means may be provided for throwing the valves into or out of operation as desired.

A similar arrangement of rotary valves and actuating devices therefor, can be provided at the charging end of the retort for automatically and periodically feeding the material from. the .charging chute into the retort.

Although of general application the vention is specially suitable for use with retorts where a so-called' sealing chamber is employed in order to cool down the heated material in an inert atmosphere beforel finally discharging the same to the outside atmosphere so as to prevent the red hot carbonaceous residuum from igniting during the coolin down period, such a chamber being desira le, for example, in rotary retorts for distilling or carbonizing. carbonaceous materials in cases where the heating medium is constituted by producer, water, combustion or other gases which is passed through the interior of the retort (a suitable form of retort being described in by co-pending patent application Serial No. 56.5,270, filed June 1, 1922. a

In such cases rotary valves may be provided carried bythe retort which communicate with the interior of the sealing chamber while the sealing chamber may also be provided with one or more valves which communicate with the atmosphere, both the valves on the retort and on the sealing chamber being provided with mechanism for intermittently actuating the same.

In order-that. the said invention may be clearly understood and readily carried into efiect the same will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawing which shows one constructional form of the present invention and in which y I Fi ure 1 is a part sectional elevation of the charging end of the retort and Figure 2 is a cross section on the X, X of Figure 1.

Figure 3. is a part sectional elevation of the discharging end of the retort, the retort being one which is fitted with a short annular chamber concentrically surrounding the same and serving .as a sealing chamber.

Figure 4 is a cross section on-the line Y, Y of Figure 3.

Referring more particularly to Figures 1 and 2 a is the shell of the retort and b, b are. the aforesaid rotary valves. 0, o are valve housings within which the valves rotate and c, c are hoppers leading "to the said valves 6, bl and valve housings. c, 0.

line

Each of said valves 6, b is keyed upon a shaft d which protrudes through a stnfiin box e inthe valve housing 0 and each aha d is divided into two parts which are 'adagted to be coup ed og ther y means 0 a the retort.

dog clutch 7. One or both rotary valves '6, b can thus be thrown into or out of action when desired. Mounted on the outer end of each shaft d is a pinion h, adapted during the rotation of the retort in the direction of the arrow in Figure 1, to mesh intermittently with a curved rack j. The said rack is carried by a stool 7a, to which it is attached by bolts Z, Z passing through elongated slots Z, Z, so that by loosening the bolts Z, Z the rack 7' can be raised or lowered on the stool 7c and thereafter firmly secured in its adjusted position. Owing to this arrangement the point at which the pinion it engages with the rack y can be adjusted as desired. Mounted above the stool k is a hopper m which serves as a receptacle for the material to be fed intermittently into the retort a. The discharge chute 'm' of the said hopper m is also fitted with a rotary valve n, the spindle n of the valve 91. projecting through stufiing boxes a n and being provided at one of its ends with a pulley n A belt a passes over the pulley n and also around the'retort a between guiding flanges a, a, which keep the belt in position so that, as the retort a revolves, the pulley 71?, and consequently the rotary valve n, is continuously rotated.

In operation, and owing to the rotation of the valve n the material contained within the retort is discharged intermittently through the chute m. During-the rotation of the retort a the charging spouts c, which in the example shown are positioned diametrically opposite to one another, are brought successively into position beneath the discharge chute m. The timing of the parts is such that when in this position the material discharged from the hopperm by means of the rotary valve 'n, falls into one or other of the spouts 0, 0 carried by the retort a. As the retort a rotates the pinion 71 carried on the rotary valve 5 also engages intermittently with and is rotated by the rack j. When the particular spout c which has received a charge of material from the hopper m approaches a vertical position the timing of the parts is such that the valve Z) will have rotated to such an extent as to feed the charge of material from the spout 0' into the retort. As the retort continues to rotate the second charging spout 0 will then be brought under the hopper m and after receiving a charge of material its pinion It will also engage the rack j and feed the charge of material into The synchronizing of the movemen-ts of the valve 71. with the valves 12, I) carried on the retort a depends upon the ratio of the diameter of the retort a to the pulley wheel n keyed to the valve shaft n.

Referring to Figures'3 to 4, -0 is the aforesaid sealing chamber which is connected in a gas tight manner to the discharge end of the retort a. b, b are rotary valves carried respectively on the retort chamber and on the sealing chamber, the valves be ing of similar construction to the valves 6, b at the inlet end of the retort. j, j are a pair of adjustable racks carried at difierent heights on a stepped stool 7a, the construction of the racks and the provisions made for adjusting the same being similar tothat of the rack j at the inlet end of the retort. p, p are discharge openings located diametrically opposite to one another and communicating with the two rotary valves 6, Z) carried by the retort chamber and g is a discharge opening in the sealing chamber 0, leading to'the rotary valve 0. 1", 1' are manholes on the sealing chamber 0 which are provided so that the discharge valves 0, a can readily be adjusted and examined when necessary.

- In operation and during the rotation of the retort a in the direction of the arrow shown at Figure 4, the pinions h, h on the valves carried by the retort chamber will engage successively and be rotated by their actuating racks j. The material which has entered the rotary valves 6, 72 through the openings 70, 79 will consequently be discharged into the sealing chamber 0. When the rotary valve Z) on the sealing chamber reaches its lowermost position the material will enter the said valve and during. the con* tinued rotation of the retort the valve will engage the rack j anddischarge its contents to the atmosphere.

It will be understood that although the invention has been described more particularly in connection with a retort fitted both with charging and discharging "device's, the two devices need not be used together and that retorts can, if desired, be fitted with either a charging or a discharging device.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. Apparatus for the heat treatment of materials, comprisin a rotary cylinder, rotary valve means eac having a plurality of radial arms carried by said cylinder, said radial arms serving to seal said cylinder, and co-operating means disposed externally to said cylinder for engaging with and intermittently rotating said rotary valve means during the rotation of said cylinder for the purpose specified.

2. Apparatus for the heat treatment of materials, comprising a rotary cylinder, a plurality of rotary valves each having a plurality of radial arms attached to and rotatable with said cylinder, said radial arms serving to seal said cylinder, and co-operating means disposed-contiguous to said cylinder for engaging with and successively rotating said rotary valves during the rotation of said cylinder.

3. Apparatus for the heat treatment of materials comprising a rotary cylinder, valve means each having a lurality of radial arms posed contiguous to said cylinder for engagling with and intermittently actuating said rotary valve means. 4

- 4. Apparatus for the heat treatment of materials comprising a rotary cylinder, rotary valves having radial arms carried by said cylinder, 2. spindle attached to each of said rotary valves, a pinion attached to each of said spindles, a curved rack mounted adjacent to said cyl-' inder, said pinions on the rotation of the cylinder being adapted to engage successivelasly with and to be rotated by said curved rac 5. Apparatus for the heat treatment of materials, comprising a rotary cylinder, rotary valve means carried by saidcylinder, spindles attached to said valve means, and valve operating mechanism comprising a pinion attached to each of said spindles, a curved rack mounted adjacent to said cylinder, each pinion on the rotation of the retort being ada ted to enga c with and to be rotated by said curved rac and means for throwing into or out'of o eration-as desired said valve operating mec anism.

6. Apparatus for the heat treatment of materials comprising a rotary cylinder, ro-

tary valve means carried by said cyllndi -fi spindle attached to each of said rotary valves, a pinion attached to each valve spindle, a curved rack mounted adjacent to the cylinder, said pinions on the rotation of the cylinder being adapted to engage successively with and to be rotated by said curved rack, means for throwing. into or out of operation as desired the valve operating mechanism, and means for adjustlng the Y osition of the rack so'as .to vary as desired is e point at which it engages with and actuates the aforesaid pinions.

7. Apparatus for the heat treatment of materials comprising a rotary cylinder, rotary valve means each having a plurality of radial arms disposed at each endoi said cylinder, and co-operatingmeans disposed contiguous-to each end of said cylinder for engaging with and intermittently actuating said rotary valve means.

8. Apparatus for the heat treatmentof materials comprising a rotary cylinder, ro-

tary valves disposed at each end of said cylinder, s indles attached to each of said rotary va ves, pinions attached to each of said spindles, curved racks mounted adjacent to each end of said cylinder, said pinions on the rotation of the cylinder being adapted to engage successively with andto be rotated by said *curved racks for the purpose specified.

FREDERICK BEACON MARSHALL 

